The 1989 Goody's 500 was the 24th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 41st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 24, 1989, in Martinsville, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. In the closing stages of the race, Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip would make a late-race charge to the front, passing for the lead with 47 laps left in the race. Afterwards, Jackson Bros. Motorsports driver Harry Gant would make an attempted charge before a caution came out with two laps left in the race, ending the race and handing Waltrip the victory.[1][2][3][4] The victory was Waltrip's 79th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his sixth and final victory of the season. To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Harry Gant and Stavola Brothers Racing driver Dick Trickle would finish second and third, respectively.
Martinsville Speedway is an NASCAR-owned stock car racing track located in Henry County, in Ridgeway, Virginia, just to the south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only remaining race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 22, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, September 23, at 12:30 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-30 would be decided on time,[5] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given.
Jimmy Hensley, who was replacing the regular driver for Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt, would win the pole, setting a time of 20.602 and an average speed of 91.913 miles per hour (147.920 km/h) in the first round.[6][7]
